She has always painted, believing firmly in the immediacy of the hand and brush to express intellectual ideas. Preferred materials for her abstract, semi-figurative and portrait work are water colour and acrylics on board. She continues to teach at all levels, and lectures on women painters following research covering the past 400 years.
A small abstract painting by Jean featured in the 2001 Eastern Open exhibition at the Fermoy Art Gallery, and her work was also accepted by the Women Beyond Borders project run during 2000 from California.
Jean's paintings have also been accepted by the London gallery of the Free Painters' Society and many other galleries over a career dedicated to the expression of visual ideas.
The golden tent
Acrylic on board
100cm wide x 60cm high
These two major themes are related yet contain many contrasts. Both conceal the body, yet one is soft, one shell-like. Both limit freedom, yet one speaks defiance, the other anonymity. Both are people, yet one is male, one female.
Concurrent themes are tents in many forms (also concealing and protecting) and a variety of imaginative floral representations. 'If you need to use words along with my pictures, you have a wide range of interpretations open to you,' says Jean. 'It could be a cry for help from someone immersed in a busy life. Or a representation of the eternal conflict between aggression and compassion.
'But I chose these two powerful visual symbols as an opportunity to use the language I know best - colour, form, line and tone. Poets, musicians, dancers and all artists constantly search for a subject through which they can express their art.
'The subject is only the starting point. How you express yourself in the language you know best is what is important.'
Midnight knights
Acrylic on board
100x60cm
On Saturday/Sunday 16,17 April 2005 Jean celebrates half a century of painting with an exhibition entitled St Martin's+50. She gained her National Diploma in Design (Painting) at St Martin's School of Art in 1955 and has been painting ever since.
Women Beyond Borders, USA and worldwide
The Loggia Gallery, Buckingham Gate, London
Fermoy Gallery, King's Lynn
East Anglian Open, King's Lynn
London Group, Haymarket, London
Whitehall Gallery, Cheam, Surrey
Picturecraft Gallery, Holt, North Norfolk
Drawings for All, Gainsborough's House, Sudbury
Rivington Gallery, Shoreditch, London
Norfolk Open Studios, 2001 & 2002
Jean has a new website showing much more of her work.
Visit JeanHillPaintings.com
Portrait example
Acrylic on board
30x40cm
COMMISSIONS undertaken Acrylic, Watercolour, or Drawings
Imaginary root with flowers
Watercolour
18x23cm
4 King's Staithe Square
King's Lynn
Norfolk PE30 1JE
Phone & fax 01553 763675
Email: jean.hill@talktalk.net
Website: JeanHillPaintings.com
Three women wrapped
Plastic crayon
21x14cm